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Principal of the Thing
The Principal of the Thing, or simply the Principal, is, as his name suggests, the principal of Here School from the games Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning. He is one of the most prominent characters that the player will encounter, and proves to be quite bothersome to most players. He, like most of the characters, speaks in a monotone voice void of almost any emotion. When Baldi gets angry, he begins in the Principal's office. Appearance The Principal of the Thing is a tall, lanky adult man with his right hand out pointing upwards. His eyebrows are raised with one eye appearing to wink, and his mouth is open as if he was shouting. He wears a dark gray shirt with lighter stripes, pale blue jeans, and white socks without shoes (for some reason) and his legs, especially his right one, are slightly glitched/erased. Mechanics Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning The Principal of the Thing seems to be taking the place of what a normal hall monitor would be like in a school environment. The Principal of the Thing will move around quickly around the school, checking the rooms and occasionally whistling. He will only just pass by the player, unless the player breaks any of the school rules, like running in the halls. If the player breaks any of the School Rules near the Principal of the Thing, he will take action and chase the player at a speed that is faster than the player. Once he catches them, he will put them in the Principal's Office, giving the player a detention for some time and shunning them as he leaves. During detention, the player is unable to leave the room for 15 seconds, and the time the player will have to wait will be increased by 15 seconds every time they are caught. Any detentions after 60 seconds will last for 99 seconds. However, there is an item called the Principal's Keys that are found in one of the school's Faculty Rooms. When the player is in detention, they can right click on the door with the keys selected. However, the longer the detention time is, the riskier it is to do, because if the Principal catches the player outside while detention is still being held, he will send them back to detention with an increase of waiting time. At an unlikely 99 seconds, the player no longer runs the risk of increasing their detention time beyond an additional 99 seconds through means of escape or more detentions, however the player will most likely have been caught long before this point. Being put into detention also counts as "opening a door" and will make Baldi go in that direction if the player didn't use the phone (Using the regular tape is not a good way to keep Baldi away, since the tape is in the detention room anyway.) As such, getting caught three or more times is an almost guaranteed game over without these items or a distraction, as it will take too long for the timer to hit 0 before Baldi enters and catches the player. After the V1.3 update, however, the Principal of the Thing can also send It's a Bully to detention, as seen here. This can make him quite helpful on some occasions. Baldi's Basics - Field Trip The Principal of the Thing plays a minor role in the demo and is one of the four characters who appear and return from the first game. He can only be found past a black wall in the school, after which encountering him will play the message "No breaking the fourth wall in the halls". However, the Principal of the Thing will not bring the player to detention and will simply stand there. In fact, there is no Principal's Office in the school's map for Baldi's Basics - Field Trip, as it is only just a few hallways.(this also applies to the other rooms in the school). Tips The Principal of the Thing moves fast, so wait until he passes by, and then start running once you are out of his vision. It's also a good time to use an Energy Flavored Zesty Bar to recover any energy you may have used. As of the latest update, he no longer puts you in detention for eating a zesty bar. It's definitely a bad idea to use BSoda on him, because he will then start chasing after the player after saying: "No drinking drinks in the halls!". He won't notice the cloud created by it, though. You can also use BSoda to avoid him putting you in detention while he chases you. The Principal of the Thing can actually help the player at certain times. For one, he takes the player to his office, where they can use the Baldi Anti Hearing and Disorienting tape, and even get them away from Playtime if she catches them. He can also get rid of It's a Bully. The player can also use WD-NoSquee on the Principal's Office door, so Baldi can't hear that the player is in detention. Pretty useful if the player have been caught 2 times, as the WD-NoSquee item lasts 4 openings. Glitches If the Principal of the Thing catches the player breaking the rules and then the player goes into the detention room, he won’t be able to send the player to detention. He will send the player to normal detention but the door is still open, leaving the player with a free getaway which leads to "No escaping detention in the halls." If the player holds shift for less than a second with a 1-second delay repeatedly, they can actually run in the halls without the Principal of the Thing catching them. It appears that you cannot be sent to detention while in the detention room, causing the principal to lock onto you until you exit the room (in which you are sent to detention again). It is possible within normal gameplay using the "free getaway" glitch (see above) and some good timing, but is normally only seen within hacking. Trivia * His name is a play on words of the phrase: "It's the principle of the thing". A principle is a fundamental rule, law, or tenet. * All of his accusatory sentences involve the action occurring "in the halls." ** The format later became a meme within the community. *As of the 1.3 Update, he now detects the player breaking rules in his line of sight, rather than the small radius seen in older versions. In older versions, he wasn't able to send It's a Bully to detention at all. ** This makes both the Principal of the Thing and It's a Bully the only characters to have their mechanics altered within a new update. ** In older versions, there was a school rule, 'No eating food in the halls'. However, in the 1.3 update, the rule was removed and replaced with the 'No bullying' rule. This means that the player can eat a Zesty Bar without being punished by the Principal of The Thing (the Zesty Bar, however, gives the player a speed boost, which when the Principal catches the player running, he is put into detention). * This is one of the only characters that portrays a real-life person, the person presumably being the game's creator, Mystman12. The other portrayal is Filename2. * There are unused sounds for the Principal of the Thing saying "No stabbing people with pencils in the halls." and "No looking in other people's lockers in the halls.". This might hint that the Principal of the Thing originally would also put the player in detention for looking into people's lockers and attacking characters with pencils, but these mechanics were cut from the game. ** Micah revealed in his gaming live-stream that the former quote was originally going to be said by the Principal of the Thing when a removed character, referred to by Micah as "Pencil Boy", was stabbing the player. * His whistling sound is actually taken from a cartoon series known as "The Amazing World of Gumball". In said episode, a character known as Banana Joe is seen whistling. (Click here to watch it). However, the whistles were edited from the original to be lower-pitched and much shorter. * The Principal of the Thing is one of the five characters described in unused audio logs. The others being Baldi, Playtime, Arts and Crafters and Gotta Sweep. * His voice and It's a Bully's voice are very identical. This is most likely because they're both voiced by their creator Mystman12, who also voiced most of the other characters in the game. * All characters except Playtime have a reason to not get sent to detention for running in the halls: Arts and Crafters, 1st Prize and Gotta Sweep are non-human. Baldi is a teacher and he is not running. And It's a Bully can't run (though he is put into detention solely for blocking the hall.) *In the new Kickstarter Baldi's Basics Field Trip, he can say "No breaking the fourth wall in the halls!" when going through all four text walls, although he won't take the player to detention. ** This is also a pun for going through the fourth final "You'll regret this..." wall. Breaking the fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imagined wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes, the actors should act as if they cannot. Glitches *If the player is already in the Principal's Office and is caught breaking one of the School Rules, the Principal of the Thing will overlap the player until he leaves the office, then send them back with detention. *The Principal of the Thing could put the player in detention if he sees them getting pushed by Gotta Sweep or 1st Prize, due to him seeing the player and thinking you are running. This was fixed in V1.3.2. *Sometimes the player could get away with cutting jump ropes or wires when the Principal is around. Audio Unused Audio Gallery Principal's Page In Detention.png|The Principal of the Thing's description in his office. 472e3e17e403ee63fd4347ad0a77b274_original.png 1d7997099c42e2bde56b9d5972dfcad7_original.png|Principal of the Thing, along with half of the cast, in the "Thank you!" image after the game's Kickstarter page was funded. Navigation Category:Characters